news items

Contemporary Group news items

ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

CONTEMPORARY GROUP EAST MIDLANDS REGION

MEETING 11 JULY 2010 AT THE VILLAGE HALL, RUDDINGTON, NOTTINGHAM

Hello to all
I will call this Newsletter 1 as I think I’ll be writing something after each meeting if only to keep my memory up to date and to keep anyone who cannot attend informed as to what we have been up to.

SUNDAY’S MEETING

There were 11 people present and interest has been expressed by at least two others who were unable to be with us.

After I outlined my reasons for calling a meeting to see if there was a need and enthusiasm for forming an East Midlands Regional Group of the RPS Contemporary Group (what a mouthful, we need to find a way of shortening this) it was agreed that such a Group should be formed. The main purpose was to have a place where members can share their work, receive encouragement in the work and receive and give constructive comment about the work – a forum for showing and discussing our photography and image making.

STRUCTURE
A loose organisation with all decisions about the group and its ethos to be made by the Group at its meetings. There is no need for a formal committee structure. Howard F to act as co-ordinator in arranging meetings.
MEETINGS
To be held quarterly.
We would seek to alternate meetings between members showing their work and discussing it with the Group and meetings where a speaker would be invited. I have had offers to come and speak to us but this will involve us in covering the speakers expenses which would need to be shared between all present at the meeting.
The format would be to have a shortish break mid-way for tea/coffee etc where members can socialise.
FINANCE
Just to confirm that Sunday’s room cost £36.00 to hire. There were 11 of us present and we all tipped in £5.00 which means that I hold a balance of £19.00.
CONTEMPORARY
There was discussion about the meaning of Contemporary which we distilled to an essence of a personal element in the making of photographs, usually in panels or books.
Having given Bob Gates (CG Secretary) a briefing on the meeting he kindly sent me the recently decided definition of Contemporary as agreed in the CG Committee:-
“Photography that explores the photographer's personal view of contemporary society, environment, art or culture, usually through a themed body of work.”
I think this is wide enough to cover a large range of work and certainly all that we saw on Sunday.
I have also received an email from Chris Morris the CG Chairman:-

Dear Howard,

Bob Gates has told me about the new East Midlands Group.

That is really excellent news. I believe that the promotion and support of regional contemporary groups is one of the most useful activities of the Contemporary Group.

As contemporary photographers I think we will always be in a minority, so it is very important that local groups exist where like-minded individuals can share ideas – however diverse those ideas might be! It can be so refreshing to find friends who are interested in photography rather than simply buying cameras and taking pictures.

I wish you every success with the Group.

Best wishes,
Chris

VENUE

The most exciting follow up to our meeting is that David has offered us a meeting venue which will be free of charge at his studio complex in Long Eaton: Harrington Mill Studios, 1st Floor, Turret H, Leopold Street, Long Eaton, Nottingham, NG10 4QE

Visit the web site to gain an idea of the venue which has kitchen facilities we could use.

www.harringtonmillstudios.co.uk

Incidentally, if you wish to see more of David’s MA work than we saw on Sunday have a look at the blog he made whilst doing the MA at: http://dmatdmu.blogspot.com/ you will find it most interesting.

You can also see more of Steve’s work on his Flickr site at:www.flckr.com/photos/thewishy

If any others of you have web sites please let me know so that I can pass on details to everyone. I own a site but things this year have just been too chaotic for me to add anything. I have a book to finish and get to the printers during this summer before I can give a lot more thought to the web site. No – it’s not a photographic book but an historical one, after all, my MA is in Local and Regional History!

LANCASTER EVENT

I was asked to post details of the Lancaster event to be held on Saturday, 16 October 2010 at the Lancaster Campus of the Uni of Cumbria.

The speakers are Martin Parr and John Darwell. The cost is £20 for RPS Contemporary Group members, £25 for non-members and £15 for full-time students.

The following is from the CG website at: http://rpscontemporary.org/index.html where you will find more information, a downloadable booking form and details of other CG events.

WHEN NOTHING can any longer be done for the first time, how do we do things differently? Working among the surfeit of images, which so characterizes our contemporary world, a photographer’s greatest challenge is to distinguish their personal work from the thousands of competing images on every hand. The RPS Contemporary Group strives to meet this challenge in its promotion of Contemporary Photography. It is proud to present two of Britain’s most original photographers, whose work is stamped by their own personal vision of the world and is recognisably and brilliantly their own.

Martin Parr is arguably Britain’s most celebrated photographer. He is a member of Magnum, author of numerous photographic books, and curator of international photographic exhibitions. He is known for his biting social criticism, keen eye for detail and unfailing sense of photographic humour. For more than thirty years he has been pushing out the boundaries of photography, his style both constant and constantly evolving, and always recognisably Parr.

John Darwell has also been photographing for more than three decades. He currently teaches the MA course on photography at the University of Cumbria at Carlisle. He is the author of seven photographic books, has exhibited frequently in the UK and abroad and is represented in many international collections. His subjects include the post-industrial landscape, the global nuclear industry, the exploration of interior psychological conditions and most recently the phenomena of discarded dog poop bags.

Both our speakers have produced major bodies of work that express their own personal views of the contemporary world. Their personal vision and style is an unmistakable mark of their photography. The RPS Contemporary Group is delighted to offer this opportunity to see and hear two great British photographers tell how they do it.

SATURDAY 16 OCTOBER 2010 UNIVERSITY OF CUMBRIA, LANCASTER CAMPUS

EVENT INFORMATION

The event will begin at 10.30; with registration from 09.45 onwards, when tea/coffee and biscuits will be available. Lunch (anything from a sandwich to a small meal) can be purchased at the excellent University restaurant on campus. Through the day, there will be a sale of photographic books authored by both speakers, who will be pleased to sign them, and two photographic exhibitions. It is expected that the event will finish about 17.30, but attendees will be welcome to stay on for books or exhibitions until 18.00.

OUR NEXT MEETING

Probably Sunday 31 October 2010 from 2 to 4.30 pm at Harrington Mills Studios.

I am awaiting David’s confirmation of availability and will notify you all as soon as possible.

I am aiming to arrange a speaker for our next event, possibly the CG Chairman, Chris Morris. I will notify you later.

Contemporary-NorthWest meeting report

Our meeting held on 22 March 2010 saw our best attendance so far, despite the absence of some of our regular members. A few - as yet - non-members of the CG were trying us out. And an ARPS who was thinking of applying for his Fellowship in Contemporary Photography was looking for advice on the suitability of his submission for that category.

The meeting began by looking at this. The photographs – all 35mm slides of steam locomotives in action - were uniformly beautiful, but the feeling was they failed to illustrate a previsualised concept. In Contemporary Photography, the photographer’s conception, as embodied in a submitted Statement, is paramount. In this case his Statement was more a general musing on railways than a concept. The photographs, moreover, excellent as they were, amounted more to a collection of individual images than a themed body of work. Although our guest was disappointed with our reaction, the process of viewing and discussing the photographs was helpful in identifying the sometimes elusive essence of Contemporary photography.

Mike Jackson next gave us a rundown on Flickr, and we talked further about the possibility of setting up a Contemporary-NorthWest site. There are three types of group site. A public site is open to all: all may access it and all may post to it. A public (private) site may be accessed by all, but only group members may post. A private site can be viewed only by group members, and only group members may post. The general view of the meeting was that a public (private) site would be most appropriate for us. But would sufficient people use the site to make it worth having? We agreed to talk further about this at our next meeting.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to looking at members’ work. This is likely to prove our core activity and anybody who is seeking advice or an opinion on work in progress is urged to bring it along. Discussion of images is usually as instructive as looking at them, if not more so, so viewers of work benefit as much as the photographer.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 17 May 2010, at Days Inn, Charnock Richard Services, as previously. We have decided to mount an exhibition of C-NW work at the Martin Parr – John Darwell speaking event in Lancaster in October. The theme of the exhibition is to be simply, and broadly, ‘The North West’, and most of us will probably already have work that will be suitable. But we need to plan this carefully in advance, and we should start now, because there are only three more meetings (May, July and September) before the event. So could all of us who would like to exhibit please bring some images to the next meeting for viewing and discussion.

IHM

Contemporary-NorthWest

The first meeting was held on the 18th January and subsequent meetings will be held at two monthly intervals. Further details from Ian Maxwell mail@imaxwell.com 01524 770278

Message from Bill Jackson as follows.
I got an email tonight saying that some of the work from the Night Of The Hunter (12 to be exact) have been chosen by Rixon Reed, founder of Photo-eye in conjunction with the Center For Fine Art
Photography in Fort Collins museum of contemporary arts new book on international photography, see link

http://www.c4fap.org/exhibitors/2009Portfolio2/exhibitorsannounce.asp

Sudo Hidesawa has forwarded these .pdf files of the RPS Victoria Chapter newsletter (April and May) plus Exhibition entry details Here, Here and Here.

Bill Jackson has won the 'best of show' award at The Centre For Fine Art Photography, Museum of Contemporary Arts in Fort Collins Colrado in their international exhibition 'Trains, Planes and Automobiles'.